Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

#391

Post by gorgoiler » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 4:23 AM UTC

throw0101a wrote: post #223

Aurornis wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It gets even worse. The person not only kept the laptop and used an exploit to download confidential Apple documents, they bragged about it to a contact who was still working at Apple who was also feeding him information: > Liu allegedly kept an Apple-issued laptop after departing the company and exploited a vulnerability to download dozens of confidential Apple documents while he was working at OpenAI. He also maint…

> Whenever I leave a company I make sure everything that belongs to the company goes back to them […] At $WORK we have the option of getting a work smartphone or having the company pay for (at portion of) our monthly mobile bill. I chose a work device because I do not want any cross-contamination. (Others chose payment because they did not want the 'hassle' of carrying a second device (and to save some cash).)

Company IT policies really got it the wrong way around with “bring your own device”. My personal phone is the last device where I would want them to have a presence. Conversely, having them manage a laptop and workstation for me is never going to give me a device as nice as I’m used to at home.

It’s as if they had two choices:

“we’ll provide clothes but you can bring your own lunch!”; vs

“wear your own clothes and we’ll provide lunch!”

and they chose the weird one not the helpful one.

I am extremely picky about keyboards, screens, and OS configuration as a result of being partially deaf, having poor eyesight, and honestly being a bit of an old stick in the mud. It would be lovely to set aside some space on an old Thinkpad for work tasks. It would be comfortable and easy to isolate and be just like my personal machine.

Instead I get a choice between a MacBook with a fixed alternate key layout or a Windows machine with a locked down bright white wallpaper and a non admin account.

Re: Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

#392

Post by JKCalhoun » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 4:23 AM UTC

calf wrote: post #368

yoyohello13 wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to be a common trait of the AI people to just brazenly violate the law. It’s like a requirement for working at openAI is to think rules don’t apply to you because you’re so smart.

No it's because they think they're saving the world.

I hate to use the word sociopath, because it has such a fine point on it, but if you believe there are smart "sociopaths" out there, might they be attracted to AI in general (companies like OpenAI or SpaceXAI specifically)?

Re: Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

#393

Post by trollbridge » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 4:24 AM UTC

justusthane wrote: post #303

trollbridge wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once worked at a cybersecurity firm and they had a particularly botched rollout of MDM to Macs (which would regularly put the machine into an undesirable mode of 100% CPU usage plus max out upload bandwidth repeatedly trying and failing to backup the machine to some online backup service). I had work to do, so I simply disabled the MDM profile for the machine, installed an OS to my liking, and restored the apps I w…

> then suggested I did get hired for my cybersecurity expertise, that I do take my obligations seriously, and he could just ask me to do whatever they were planning to do from the MDM console, and it would get done. He insisted that wouldn't be necessary since in his worldview the MDM was unbreakable and he just needed to reconnect to Wi-Fi or something. > Very amusing worldview. It’s ironic that you’re displaying th…

I don't think I'm smarter than everyone else, but instead attribute this to organisational dysfunction. The problem (that went on for weeks) of the default MDM deployed software making some computers unusable was one everyone who got afflicted by it just found workarounds for, and in particular, our incentives were to get our jobs done, not to make sure we continued to allow the MDM deployed stuff to do whatever it wanted that was actively harmful to the company's best interests.

Considering the MDM was not implemented properly (particularly in an environment where one hires cybersecurity professionals, who are more likely than most to be able to figure out workarounds to it), it would actually be much more prudent to hire trustworthy staff who can be trusted not to steal company assets, trade secrets, and so on versus thinking you can conduct a zoom call on said company asset and then fire off a command via the MDM to wipe the laptop when the call is over.

I actually think the director was pretty smart, since he managed to avoid having an extended conversation about the lack of working MDM and ability to follow the procedure in front of the other person on the zoom call. Sometimes it's very important to be able to read between the lines of what someone is telling you.

Relying on remote wipes to secure company data is not a particularly strong plan, either (as this Apple saga should make clear); a determined person would simply be either constantly exfiltrating data, disconnect a machine from the network before it can be wiped, or other various plans (and do so without detection). I should know, since my job duties there were to advise customers on how to move towards a zero trust environment.

Re: Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

#394

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 4:25 AM UTC

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #266

generj wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s even more ridiculous when choosing to do it Apple. It’s hard to think of a company with more legal resources and which is more protective of its hardware IP.

Disney comes to mind… If I remember, there was a former Apple employee, who was quite influential with The House of Mouse…

[deleted]

Re: Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

#395

Post by amazingman » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 4:26 AM UTC

overfeed wrote: post #90

Robdel12 wrote: post #70

OpenAI is about to get ROCKED on this. From this report, this looks open and shut. Apple has basically infinite money and incredible lawyers. Not sure what OpenAI can counter with unless they have clear, hard evidence this hasn’t been happening.

OpenAI also has infinite money, and the graph for money/lawyering gets clamped well below what OpenAI can afford. It's going to end most other corporate courtroom tangles: with an undisclosed settlement and a well-publicized partnership.

OpenAI's money belongs to investors and can be pulled if, say, investors got spooked. Apple's money is much more real.

Re: Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

#396

Post by wwind123 » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 4:26 AM UTC

In every company I've worked at (all with >1000 employees), there is always some text in the offer or onboarding documents clearly stating that you should not bring any previous employer's trade secret or intellectual property to this company.

I wonder whether Open AI's offer letter or onboarding document also says such a thing.

Re: Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

#397

Post by willtemperley » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 4:26 AM UTC

glenpierce wrote: post #386

QQ00 wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amodei tried to regulation capture the AI access and also tried to ban open weights. So I disagree with you.

I’m unconvinced that morality is a simple Boolean. He might have ethical standards that are different that others though.

Yes. I'm not sure whether Amodei's motivation for attempting to ban open-weight models was for safety or to strengthen Anthropic's position though.

Re: Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

#398

Post by appplication » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 4:26 AM UTC

amazingman wrote: post #390

appplication wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An acquaintance of mine was accidentally wired about $100k when it was supposed to be $5k. Before it could be reversed, they moved accounts and immediately bought a one way flight out of country. They then changed all socials and handles. They are now ignoring all court documents and are on track to get a default judgement against them. Their rationale? “It’s mine, they owed me this”. They are 100% convinced that the…

This honestly sounds like mental illness.

Honestly yes, that’s most likely a major factor

Re: Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

#399

Post by SXX » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 4:27 AM UTC

decimalenough wrote: post #383

SXX wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to disappoint you, but no you cannot live "comfortably" in "poor countries" for $100,000 for "years". Well, unless you mean like two years. I lived across South East Asia for more than decade and now live here full time. I have to live on around $20,000 / year most of the time since starting my company. And I do not live anywhere close to what average US / EU citizen will call "comfortable" let alone people fro…

Sure, if you're starting from nothing and expect to live a Western lifestyle. But you can draw down $5000/year from that sum for a very long time, and make twice the average Indian yearly income.

Okay lets say you are a person who want and able to live on average Indian yearly income in rural India.

How the hell you end up in US on $100,000+ job? How much time it took and how much you spent on education / job search / migration to US?

If you're from India then likely all your relatives invested into your education and migrarion.

Re: Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

#400

Post by matheusmoreira » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 4:27 AM UTC

wang_li wrote: post #280

matheusmoreira wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Civil disobedience.

Civil disobedience involves flagrantly and publicly and obviously violating the law so you can be arrested to draw attention to whatever issue you have with the law. If you’re breaking the law and trying to get away with it, that’s just criminality and isn’t honorable or respectable.

Civil disobedience is the breaking of laws your conscience tells you are unjust -- and accepting all possible consequences that come along with such an act.

Doesn't mean you have to make it trivial for the consequences to find you by literally walking yourself into jail.